Seabrook and Fildes

As a young architect Norman Seabrook famously won the competition for the Mac.Robertson Girls' High school in 1933 soon after returning from travels through Europe, with a striking Dutch Modernist inspired design later hailed as a seminal element of what architect and critic Robin Boyd called the '1934 Revolution'. Seabrook took on the slightly older and more experienced Alan Fildes to execute the project, which became a formal partnership in 1936. By applying and adapting European modernist design principles to a broad range of civic, industrial, commercial and residential buildings, Seabrook and Fildes played a primary role in the dissemination of modernist architecture in Victoria in their relatively short-lived period of greatest creative output between 1934 and 1940.

Other notable projects included fire stations in Brunswick and Windsor, both also broadly inspired by Dutch Modernism, with rectangular volumes of brick and minimal decorative touches.

Other landmarks included Barnett's in Bourke Street, Melbourne, where the strip windows were separated by panels of blue-painted metal spandrels in imitation of curtain walling, and the Royal Exchange in Pitt Street, Sydney, with its large areas of glass, and rectilinear detailing (though the most distinctive feature of two floors of glass block walls have been replaced). Through a connection of Alan Fildes the firm was engaged on numerous projects that transformed the commercial streets of the Victorian country town of Hamilton, Victoria in the 1930s, with three pubs refurbishments and five new retail buildings, some in their signature rectilinear style, while others are more exuberant Art Deco, with prominent signage, curved corners and glass brick towers. One of their most outstanding projects was a new town hall for the small town of Warracknabeal in a boldy modernist composition of massive cream brick volumes, with integral clock tower and elegant signage.

An 8-storey office block for the Bank of New South Wales for 100 Collins Street, Melbourne was designed but never constructed. Designed in association with the larger firm of Godfrey & Spowers, it was a design with a rectilinear chequerboard effect, but also a vertical emphasis typical of Art Deco, on a traditionally solid base.{{Cite web|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article244537687|title=NEW BANK - The Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954) - 11 Nov 1937|newspaper=Herald|date=11 November 1937 |language=en|access-date=2019-12-19}}

Though known as committed modernists, they were also capable of designing in other modes, and their villa 'Combe Martin' for industrialist Charles Ruwolt in Mornington is a fine example of the Old English revival style.

The practice operated as Seabrook, Fildes and Hunt briefly from 1955 until Fildes' death in 1956, then as Seabrook, Hunt and Dale until Norman Seabrook's retirement in 1976, but after WW2 the firm had lost their position as leading avant-garde designers.

Norman Hugh Seabrook was born in the Melbourne suburb of Northcote in 1906. He received his education at Brighton College, Wesley, and Hassets Commercial College Prahran, and gained his Architectural articles working for A.R. Barnes in 1924–26.{{cite thesis |title=Planting the seeds of Modernism: The work of Seabrook and Fildes 1933-1950 |author=Phillips, Christine |type=M.Arch [by thesis] |publisher=Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning. The University of Melbourne |year=2007 }}{{rp|3}} He continued his studies at the University of Melbourne Architecture Atelier from 1927 to 1931, before working for 18 months in Britain and travelling in Europe, possibly gaining first-hand experiences of the Dutch Functionalists and working on projects influenced by them in Britain.{{Cite web |url=http://www.architecture.com.au/i-cms_file?page=4048%2FMacRobV2.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=17 February 2022 |archive-date=18 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180618130014/http://www.architecture.com.au/i-cms_file?page=4048%2FMacRobV2.pdf |url-status=dead }} On his return to Melbourne in 1933 he won the competition to design the new Mac.Robertson Girls' High school, which he completed with the assistance of Alan Fildes, with whom he entered into partnership in 1936. The partnership ended in 1956 with the death of Fildes. Seabrook taught briefly at the University of Melbourne in the 1950s, and continued practicing as Seabrook Hunt and Dale until his retirement in 1976. He died two years later in 1978.

Alan Fildes was born in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond in 1909. He studied modelling, architecture, construction and carpentry at Brighton Technical College. He received his certificate of architectural registration while working for Oakley and Parkes in 1933.{{rp|35}} By 1936 he had entered into practice with Norman Seabrook, Seabrook as the main designer, Fildes managing the projects and running the office.Goad, Philip. '[http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/seabrook-norman-hugh-11645 Seabrook, Norman Hugh] (1906 - 1978)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 16, Melbourne University Press, 2002, p. 202 Alan Fildes died in 1956 at the age of 47.

Amongst the office staff of Seabrook & Fildes was Russian-born architect Anatol Kagan (1913-2009), who worked there in the late 1930s and later became a prominent practitioner in his own right.

{{Main|MacRobertson Girls’ High School buildings}}

MacRobertson Girls' High school was constructed in 1933–34 to Norman Seabrook's competition-winning design. It remains one of the first and best examples of Modernist architecture in Melbourne and was said by Robin Boyd to have signalled ‘the 1934 revolution’ of Victorian architecture.{{cite book |author=Boyd, Robin |authorlink=Robin Boyd (architect) |title=Victorian Modern: One Hundred and Eleven Years of Modern Architecture in Victoria |publisher=Victorian Architectural Students Society |location=Melbourne |year=1947 }}{{rp|28}}

Influenced by Dutch Architect Willem Marinus Dudok’s Hilversum City Hall, the school was arranged in a functionalist manner, breaking the program down into series of intersecting cream-brick volumes according to De Stijl principles, interrupted by large strips of red-framed windows and blue-glazed window sills. The building was a radical departure from school buildings of the time, even including a rooftop classroom, and was the first Willem Marinus Dudok inspired building designed by Seabrook, the principles of which would be repeated and adapted through much of the practices later work.

The factory for the silverware and medallion manufactures Stokes and Sons was constructed in Albert Street, Brunswick in 1936. It was a significant building for architects Seabrook and Fildes, as it saw them expand their Modernist design principles to successfully execute an industrial building type.{{rp|170}} Constructed in their signature cream-brick it broke down the traditional large factory into a series of volumes, each scaled according to its function, the largest for the manufacturing part of the complex and a lower volume for the office spaces.{{rp|162}} It also featured the bright colors used at MacRob, with window frames in bright vermillion, the soffits of the long ledges above in bright blue, with a bright yellow front door and lettering of the signage.{{Cite journal|date=1936-08-01|title=NEW FACTORY PREMISES FOR STOKES & SONS PTY. LTD. AT BRUNSWICK, MELBOURNE (1 August 1936)|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/version/258432596|journal=Decoration and Glass|language=English|volume=2|issue=4}} The building is demolished.

Brunswick Fire Station was designed for the Metropolitan Fire Brigade in 1937, and remains in operation today. It is significant for its radical shift from the Georgian revival style common to fire stations of the time, replacing historical reference with a stripped-back modern functionalism. The red brick cubic composition of the Station was set apart from the domestic components, which were contained in two small blocks behind the main building, forming their own residential precinct and reflecting recent advances in European urban design.{{Cite web|url=https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/168|title=BRUNSWICK FIRE STATION AND FLATS|last=|first=|date=|website=Victorian Heritage Database|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}

Windsor Fire Station was a departure from the intersecting forms of the practices earlier works, reducing the massing to a simple cream brick box form with a central symmetrical panel of strip windows and projecting balconies, cut short by a blade wall on one side.{{Cite web|url=https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/66412|title=Windsor Fire Station and Flats|last=|first=|date=|website=Victorian Heritage Database|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}} The design of Kew Fire Station in 1941 by Harry Winbush{{Cite web|url=https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/14589|title=Kew Fire Station|last=|first=|date=|website=Victorian Heritage Database|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}} may have been influenced by the Seabrook & Fildes stations, since it has the two-tone brickwork of Brunswick, and the central panel form of Windsor. The building was demolished in 1994 to make way for a new fire station.

The largest civic building designed by Seabrook and Fildes was a town hall for the rural Victorian town of Warracknabeal.

The building is significant for its application of European modernist design principles to the town-hall building type, which until then had been dominated by classical references{{citation needed|date=October 2020}}

The building is constructed from the practice's signature cream-brick and features an asymmetric composition of two large volumes with a large corner clock tower signalling the main entry. The front of the building is broken up by three vertical strips of deeply recessed windows, creating an interplay between solid and void and combined with the deep shadow over the entry suggest an adaptation of modernist design principles to an Australian climate.{{rp|124–5}} When built, it originally included an operational cinema to provide a social focus for the town and a means of paying for the building's construction.{{Cite web|url=https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/14390|title=WARRACKNABEAL TOWN HALL|last=|first=|date=|website=Victorian Heritage Database|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}

• Mac.Robertson Girls' High school, 1934
• Seabrook House, 55 The Boulevard, Hawthorn, 1935{{Cite web|url=https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/194926|title=55 The Boulevard|last=|first=|date=|website=Victorian Heritage Database|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}
• Stokes and Sons, Albert Street, Brunswick, 1936 (demolished)
• Gair Manufacturing Co., 461 King Street, West Melbourne, 1936
• Bank of New South Wales, 856 Sydney Road, Moreland, 1936
• High Royd flats, 36 Robe Street, St Kilda
• Brunswick Fire Station, 24 Blyth Street, Brunswick, 1937
• Ansett Aircraft Hangar, Essendon Airport, 1937
• Royal Exchange Assurance, Pitt Street, Sydney, 1937{{Cite web|url=https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/heritageapp/ViewHeritageItemDetails.aspx?ID=2423712|title=Former "Royal Exchange Assurance Building" Including Interiors {{!}} NSW Environment, Energy and Science|website=www.environment.nsw.gov.au|access-date=2019-09-12}}
• Shops and flats, 923 High Street, Armadale{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12481075|title=COMBINED SHOPS AND FLATS AT ARMADALE|date=1938-09-01|work=Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957)|access-date=2019-09-12|pages=6}}
• Miller & Co. Store, 121 Gray Street, Hamilton, 1937An historic photo can be found [http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/122523 here].
• Shop, 196 Gray Street, Hamilton, c1938{{Cite web|url=https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/24309|title=Scullions|last=|first=|date=|website=Victorian Heritage Database|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}
• The George Hotel (extensive alterations; later an Edwardian verandah was added, demolished c2016{{Cite web|url=https://www.spec.com.au/2016/11/historic-george-hotel-demolished/|title=Historic George Hotel demolished - Spec.com.au {{!}} News Online from Hamilton, Portland and South-West Victoria {{!}} Australia|language=en-AU|access-date=2019-12-19}}), 205-221 Gray St Hamilton, 1938{{Cite web|url=https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/26507|title=George Hotel|last=|first=|date=|website=Victorian Heritage Database|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}
• Grand Central Hotel (remodelling of former Caledonian),141-3 Gray St, Hamilton, 1938 {{Cite web|url=https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/26565|title=Grand Central Hotel|last=|first=|date=|website=Victorian Heritage Database|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}
• Victoria Hotel, 91-95 Thompson Street, c1938 (attribution on stylistic grounds){{Cite web|url=http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/pictoria/gid/slv-pic-aab71872|title=Victoria Hotel, corner of Gray & Thompson Streets [Hamilton, Vic.]|website=Item held by State Library of Victoria|language=En|access-date=2019-12-19}}
• Laidlaw's, 119-123 Gray Street, Hamilton, c1939Photo and date found [http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/pictoria/gid/slv-pic-aab71864 here]
• Uren's Pharmacy, 90 Gray Street, Hamilton, 1940{{Cite web|url=https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/26549|title=Radford's Real Estate|last=|first=|date=|website=Victorian Heritage Database|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}
• Williams Building, 91-95 Gray St Hamilton, 1940{{Cite web|url=https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/26553|title=Williams Building|last=|first=|date=|website=Victorian Heritage Database|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}
• Park Court Flats, 473 St Kilda Street, Elwood, 1938{{Cite web|url=http://portphillip.vic.gov.au/default/CommunityGovernanceDocuments/473_St_Kilda_Street.pdf|title=Park Court Flats|last=|first=|date=|website=City of Port Phillip Heritage Review|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}
• House, Duncombe Avenue, Brighton, 1936 (demolished){{Cite web|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11162358|title=SMALL HOUSE FOR WIDE ALLOTMENT - Example at Brighton - The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957) - 26 May 1938|website=Trove|language=en|access-date=2019-12-19}}
• Barnett's Building, 164 Bourke Street, Melbourne, 1938{{Cite web|url=https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/64434|title=Barnett's Building|last=|first=|date=|website=Victorian Heritage Database|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}
• Flat roofed house, Beaumaris, 1939{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11247476|title=Contemporary Architecture|date=1939-09-21|work=Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957)|access-date=2019-09-12|pages=7}} (demolished)
• Windsor Fire Station, 166 Albert Street, Windsor, 1940 (demolished){{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article206760150 |title=NEW FIRE STATION FOR PRAHRAN |newspaper=The Age |issue=26,535 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=3 May 1940 |accessdate=19 September 2019 |page=14 |via=National Library of Australia}}
• Warracknabeal Town Hall, 39 Scott Street, Warracknabeal, 1940
• Camberwell Fire Station, 575 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, c1940A photo can be found [http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/pictoria/gid/slv-pic-aab89873 here]
• House, 6 Peterleigh Grove, Essendon, 1940 {{Cite web|url=https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/24081|title=HOUSE|last=|first=|date=|website=Victorian Heritage Database|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}
• Combe Martin, 819-820 Esplanade, Mornington, 1940{{Cite web|url=https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/5352|title=COMBE MARTIN|last=|first=|date=|website=Victorian Heritage Database|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}
• Seabrook House, Croydon, 1941 (demolished)
• House, 355 Gray Street, Hamilton, 1941{{Cite web|url=https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/26661|title=355 Gray Street Hamilton|last=|first=|date=|website=Victorian Heritage Database|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}
• House, 13 Carmichael Street Hamilton, 1950{{Cite web|url=https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/26673|title=13 Carmichael Street|last=|first=|date=|website=Victorian Heritage Database|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}

Brunswick Fire Station Flats.jpg|Brunswick Fire Station Flats 1937

SLNSW_11151_Royal_Exchange_Assurance_building_Oblique_view_of_Pitt_Street_frontage.jpg|Royal Exchange Assurance building, Sydney, 1937

Barnett's.jpg|Barnett's, Bourke Street, 1938

Miller & Co, Hamilton, c1937.jpg|Miller & Co, Hamilton, c1937

{{Reflist}}

• http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A160238b.htm
• http://users.tce.rmit.edu.au/E03159/ModMelb/mm2/lect/30%27s%20&%2040%27s/sf/html/brunswickfs.html
• http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/places/heritage/14390
• http://www.architecture.com.au/i-cms_file?page=4048/MacRobV2.pdf

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Category:Architecture firms of Australia

Category:Companies based in Melbourne

Category:Architecture firms based in Victoria (state)